Failing to slow to blame for crosstown fatals, CHP says

STOCKTON - The county coroner has not released the identity of a big-rig driver who died in a crash with a crane carrier Monday on Highway 4.

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By The Record

recordnet.com

By The Record

Posted Sep. 19, 2012 at 12:01 AM

By The Record

Posted Sep. 19, 2012 at 12:01 AM

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STOCKTON - The county coroner has not released the identity of a big-rig driver who died in a crash with a crane carrier Monday on Highway 4.

The accident was less than three weeks after a child was killed in a crash on the same stretch of road.

On Monday, a Freightliner was heading eastbound on the Crosstown Freeway during rush-hour traffic, traveling at 55 mph and carrying about 48,000 pounds of coiled wire, the California Highway Patrol reported.

The truck driver did not slow down as he approached stalled traffic, and he struck a large crane carrier directly in front of him at 5:20 p.m. near the Filbert Street offramp, the CHP reported.

The Freightliner's load came loose and shifted into the truck's cab, according to reports. The 46-year-old Stockton man was pronounced dead at the scene.

The crane carrier driver, a 31-year-old Oakdale man, was taken to St. Joseph's Medical Center for minor injuries.

A third person - the driver of a 2002 Ford Windstar - did not react soon enough to the accident ahead and hit the back of the Freightliner. That driver sustained minor injuries but was not transported to a hospital for medical care.

On Aug. 31, a toddler had died in another crash after a tow truck approaching slow-moving traffic crashed into the back of a Ford Fusion the child was riding in, according to reports.

Another child was taken to a hospital in critical condition. That accident is still under investigation.

But the stretch of road is not to blame for the accidents, according to the CHP. Both cases involved drivers not slowing down when traffic ahead of them had slowed. But there are no obstructions that would prevent them from doing so.